Looking Forward to the Future: 'For Everything There is a Season...'

 Pandemic Diary - Day 248

Dear Diary,

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted."

During this season of COVID in America and the rest of the world, death is at every doorstep as the virus surges out of control.

Mental coping skills have never been more important than now. Depression is widespread amidst the countless challenges we all face. 

At times, I feel like my mental process is bogged down in a thick mud of misery that clings to my thoughts like blood-sucking leeches.

I'm watching my father fade away although he's alive and breathing. Dementia has robbed him of a once sharp mind. He barely recognizes my sister, and I.

His mind is caught in a life loop where his long deceased relatives and friends dwell. The conversations in his head manifest into words that blurt out of his mouth like vignettes from his past.

His condition is worsening as he doesn't remember to eat or take care of himself. We've had to get outside help and now are facing putting him in a nursing home during this season of COVID. It may very well be the last time I see my father alive, because of COVID-19 restrictions.

It's breaking my heart. There is no good ending to this personal story. 

But, I know that I'm not alone in my grief and sorrow. Millions of Americans are experiencing untimely deaths caused by the coronavirus.

Millions of families are faced with similar situations like mine. We're all together in this season of COVID... but it will pass with vaccines and time.

And when the new season comes there'll be healing, physically, and mentally. The human race will survive and eventually thrive.

Until that blessed season arrives we must give ourselves the gift of hope, and a positive mind-set to move forward... one day at a time.

Peace.